Responsive to viewing published information (e.g., search results or an advertisement), a consumer may wish to initiate contact with an entity associated with the published information. For example, where the published information is an article or a listing describing a product or service, a consumer may wish to contact the seller to obtain further details regarding the product or service, or to negotiate for the purchase of the goods or services. Similarly, where the published information is an advertisement, a consumer may wish to initiate contact with the seller that has posted the advertisement.
Consumers are often discouraged from initiating such contact because of the effort required. For example, the contact process may require the consumer to look up the telephone number or email address of the seller, and then to manually dial the telephone number (or type in the email address) for the purpose of initiating communications.